Chicago Humanities Festival comes to Northwestern

Several well-known writers, including Junot Diaz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” are headed to Northwestern on Oct. 13 for the Chicago Humanities Festival.

Known as “Morry and Dolores Kohl Kaplan Northwestern Day,” the event features 10 different talks from several speakers ranging from journalists to curators to NU professors. Diaz’s talk, called “This is How You Find Him,” will focus on the role of love in fiction.

Delia Ephron, a screenwriter, author and playwright, is holding a discussion on her new book “Sister Husband Mother Dog,” which remembers her sister screenwriter Nora Ephron, who died in June 2012.

Four events involve NU professors, including a sold-out talk by English Prof. Susie Phillips and neurobiology Prof. Indira Ramanabout the intersection of science and humanities.

This is third time the Chicago Humanities Festival has held a Northwestern Day. There are 88 events spread out over 12 days in October and November that touch on the theme “Animal: What Makes Us Human.”

NU’s events will be held at the Block Museum, Harris Hall, Cahn Auditorium and McCormick Auditorium. The event is a partnership between the Office of the President, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities and the Office of the Provost. It was made possible by a donation from Dolores Kaplan in honor of her husband, Morry Kaplan, a founder of the festival.